1. Field the Invention
This invention relates to a lumber processing apparatus for cutting and processing a material to be processed into a predetermined shape by a numerically controlled, cutting edge, and more specifically to a lumber processing apparatus for automatically carrying out a series of steps such as removal of materials to be processed from a storage area, transfer of the materials to a processing position, processing, delivery of products after completion of processing, reception of products into a storage area, and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In case of carrying out processing of lumber using a woodworking router subjected to numerical control, most operations such as selection of materials to be processed, delivery of materials to be processed from a warehouse, setting to a woodworking router, delivery of products after completion of processing and the like have been manually carried out.
In general, cutting and processing a material to be processed by a woodworking router, involves locking the material to be processed on a table. The material to be processed is so locked by vacuum force attraction as has been known.
FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of a woodworking router provided with a conventional attraction means for a material to be processed. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 designates a woodworking router; 2 a processing head; 3 a cutting edge; 4 a table; 100 a jig for a material to be processed; 101 a suction pump; 102 a fixing device; 103 a fixing bolt; and A a material to be processed.
The operation of the conventional woodworking router will be described hereinafter. The material to be processed A is received into the attraction jig 100 fabricated to be fitted to the shape and size of the material A. The attraction jig 100 is located at a predetermined position on the table 4 by jig clamping means, such as the fixing device 102, the fixing bolt 103 and the like, after which it is fixed. The attraction jig 100 is adapted to be connected to the suction pump 101, and the suction pump 101 is operated so that the material A is vacuum-attracted by the attraction jig 100 and fixed to a predetermined position on the table 4 through the jig 100. In this fixed state, the processing head Z is operated and the cutting edge 3 is also independently rotated and vibrated to process the material A.
Most of the operations by the conventional lumber processing are manually carried. Therefore, efficiency is poor. Particularly, in the case where a large quantity of materials is to be processed, there are involved many problems in that many operators are required, erroneous operation tends to occur, and safety management of the operation has to be taken into consideration.
In the woodworking router, in cutting and processing a material to be processed, an exclusive-use attraction jig adjusted to the shape and size of the particular material to be processed has to be fabricated whenever processing takes place for a different material type. A considerable number of fabrication steps were required. Moreover, as these attraction jigs are very poor for general use, an extensive exclusive-use space was required to store attraction jigs for each different size and shape of material to be processed. The ratio of cost of these attraction jigs to the products to be processed is large, which leads to an obstacle in achieving a reduction in cost of products to be processed. Furthermore, in cutting and processing a material to be processed, an amount of time for setting the attraction jig is required. Particularly, in a production of a variety of products in a small quantity, there has been an obstacle to improve real availability time of the apparatus.
In the case where the effective attractive force of the exclusive-use attraction jig is small, it is not possible to simply increase the attractive force in the attraction means for a material to be processed in the conventional woodworking router. Therefore, there is employed a design in which an auxiliary clamping means other than the attractive force must be used at the same time in terms of safety, requiring an extra allowance of material for clamping by the auxiliary clamping means in an end of the material to be processed.